I’ve been Urban Sketching for a few years now. It’s an international movement that involves drawing on location, indoors or out, capturing what is seen from direct observation. Drawings are then shared locally and internationally... as the website says, “We show the world, one drawing at a time.”

When I was in art school, I would go into downtown Vancouver and draw the urban things that my suburban satellite city didn't have. There were things like tall buildings, alleys, tugboats and people in a much busier environment. I guess I was urban sketching before I even knew that 'this was a thing'.

County Place, Perth, Scotland (1999)

I was drawing less as time went on but when I was living in Scotland, the relatively different look of things made me pick it up again. I also switched to using a ballpoint pen at that time. The pencil in my older sketchbooks was blurring from the gentle smudging of the pages.

I'm now living in New Zealand and it's motivating to find others, locally and internationally, who just want to draw, like a good sketchcrawl and are generally into the urban sketching thing. Seeing everyone's great drawings makes me want to draw each sketch better than my last one.

What materials do you use? Describe your technique:

Sketch drawn on location

Pretty much all my drawings here are done with a ballpoint pen on location. I don't use pencil first since I find that a ballpoint can make a light enough line without committing too much ink right away. I do however rip out a LOT of pages from my sketchbook. My technique is pretty unforgivable if something is majorly wrong. Often, I will return for more than one sitting or draw 'just enough' to finish it at home (like shading).

Same sketch, digitally coloured later

If I colour a sketch, I use Photoshop and a graphics tablet. I paint 'behind it' with the black lines on top since to me the sketch is still king and I like the comic book style result. Usually, my drawings are detailed enough with enough information that I can remember what colour everything is without guessing too much. That being said, I've started to use watercolour paints since it's a bit faster process and I can also do my colouring on location too.